The Bobo Experiment

The Bobo Experiment was performed in 1961 by Albert Bandura to try and prove that people, especially children, learn their social skills and behaviors from copying or mimicking adults in their lives rather than through heredity genes. Bandura wanted to show, by using aggressive and non-aggressive adult-actors, that a child would be apt to replicate and learn from the behavior of a trusted adult (Shuttleworth, M. 2008). These issues have been present for many years, even before the media used these factors as selling points for newspapers. During the 1960’s, there was several concerns and debates about how children developed whether it be from genetics, environmental factors, or social interactions. For this reason, Bandura created the Bobo Doll Experiment to prove that children are taught from the adults in their lives through role-modeling (Shuttleworth, M. 2008).

Bandura had several hypotheses about the results of the Bobo Doll Experiment that were appropriate with his vision on the concepts of social learning (Shuttleworth, M. 2008). 1.Children observing an adult role model operating in an overly hostile manner would be likely to replicate similar behavior themselves, even if the adult was not there (Shuttleworth, M. 2008). 2.Subjects who had witnessed a non-aggressive adult would be less likely to show violent inclinations, even if the adult was not present. They would be even less likely to exhibit this kind of aggression than the control group of children, who had seen no role model at all (Shuttleworth, M. 2008). 3.Bandura believed that children would be much more expected to mimic the behavior of a role model of the same sex. He wanted to show that it was much easier for a child to recognize and relate with an adult of the same gender (Shuttleworth, M. 2008). 4.Bandura’s last prediction was that boys would tend to be more aggressive than girls, because society has always endured and promoted violent behavior in men more than women...

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...The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and studied patterns of behaviour associated with aggression.
Bandura hoped that the experiment would prove that aggression can be explained, at least in part, by social learning theory. The theory of social learning would state that behaviour such as aggression is learned through observing and imitating others.
The experiment is important because it sparked many more studies about the effects that viewing violence had on children.
Method
In this experiment three groups of children saw a film which showed the adult attacking an inflatable doll with a stick. The doll was thrown across the room, sat on, punched and kicked. Bandura provided three alternative endings to the film:
Group A - Saw only the doll being hit. Group B - Saw the adult being praised and rewarded for hitting the doll. Group C - Saw the adult being punished for hitting the doll.
When the children had seen the film, they were given the same doll. Bandura observed their behavior which showed that groups A and B imitated the aggressive behaviour they had witnessed, while group C were less aggressive.
Results
Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. For those children exposed to the aggressive model, the number of imitative...

...Bandura, Dorothea Ross and Sheila Ross conducted an experiment which was carried out at Stanford university to explore whether children would be likely to copy aggressive behaviour observed from another person which is referred to as a ‘model’ and does the violence that children observe on television, movies and video games and “how social learning operates through exposure to a particular behaviour” (investigating psychology page 123) leading them to behave aggressively also what factors would affect the experiment. All the children who participated in the experiment “attended the university nursery school” (investigating psychology page 110) the experiment which he conducted was called the Bobo Doll experiment which will be discussed in more detail.
Experiment
The Bobo Doll was an inflatable plastic blow up doll which could not be knocked down to the floor Bandura et al. and colleagues conducted the experiment with the participation of 96 children with equal number of boys to girls all ages between 3 – 6years Bandura separated the children into four groups each containing twenty four children allocating each individual child into one of four groups “to see whether gender had any influence on the level of imitation of the aggressive behaviour observed” (Assignment Booklet page 10). Group one was a real life person situated in a room...

...learned very well to stay out of trouble. There are good things I learned too like how to make people laugh in conversation, and how to dress for important occasions. I learned how to drive, and how to cook from observational learning.
The Bobo Doll Experiment is another good example of our mirror neurons at work. Psychologist, Albert Bandura, in 1961 at Stanford University took 72 nursery school children (who attended day care there) and performed his study to see if his hypothesis of observational learning was correct. Albert Bandura believed that a lot of what we know we learn from each other, especially at a young age. He also believed that this was true in children’s behavior. To prove this he separated the children into eight experimental groups of six and one control group of 24. He also made sure there were equal numbers of boys and girls to each group. He then allowed the children to be worked up a bit so they all were on the verge of aggression before the experiment began. One group of six an adult model performed aggressive behavior toward the Bobo Doll (a plastic punching bag with a clown on it), the other group the model showed kind behavior to. The control group never had a model to show them how to act with the Bobo Doll. The aggressive group mirrored the models behavior but took the aggression to a higher point. They were more verbally abusive and physically abusive and...

...The Bobo doll experiment was the name of two experiments conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 studying patterns of behavior associated with aggression. The Bobo Doll used in the experiment is an inflatable toy that is roughly the same size as a young child. Bandura hoped that the experiments would prove that aggression can be explained, at least in part, by social learning theory. The theory of social learning would state that behavior such as aggression is learned through observing and imitating others.
The experiments are important because it sparked many more studies on the effects of violent media on children. In the experiment, children were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was exposed to a video of a woman attacking a Bobo doll, while the other groups of children were not exposed to any video. Bandura wanted to measure how many aggressive acts a child would commit after being exposed to someone else eliciting this kind of negative behavior. Bandura then placed each child, one by one, in a room with several toys, including a Bobo doll. He observed that the children who watched the video did not play with any other toys except for the Bobo doll, and they also imitated the same aggressive behavior the woman did in the video. Moreover, this experiment shows that children are...

...Bandura and the Bobo Doll
Running head: BANDURA AND THE BOBO DOLL
Bandura, Ross, and Ross:
Observational Learning and the Bobo Doll
Anthony R. Artino Jr.
University of Connecticut
Bandura and the Bobo Doll 1
Bandura, Ross, and Ross:
Observational Learning and the Bobo Doll
Since the publication of their seminal article entitled, “Transmission of Aggression
Through Imitation of Aggressive Models” (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961), the work of Albert
Bandura and his co-authors has had an immeasurable impact on the field of psychology, in
general, and educational psychology, more specifically. The purpose of this report is to describe,
in brief, Albert Bandura’s major contributions to the field of educational psychology. Although
Bandura’s contributions are vast by any measure, this paper focuses on his work with social
modeling and observational learning. The report includes a short biography of Bandura’s
academic life, followed by an overview of the research article that launched his prolific career
and a review of his social learning theory. The paper ends with a discussion of Bandura’s
enduring legacy, including a summary of his major contributions to the field of educational
psychology and an abbreviated list of the doctoral students he has trained and colleagues he has
influenced.
Albert Bandura’s Abridged Biography
Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in Mundare, a...

...One of the most well-known psychology experiments done was known as “the Bobo doll study.” Before conducting the experiment, the psychologists made four hypothesis or predictions in this case. The first prediction was that “subjects who observed adult models performing actions of aggression would imitate the adult and engage in similar aggressive behaviors, even if the model was no longer present.” The second prediction was “children who were exposed to the non-aggressive models would not only be less aggressive than those who observed the aggression, but also significantly less aggressive than a control group of children who were exposed to no model at all.” The third prediction was “because children tend to identify with parent and other adults of their same sex, subjects would “imitate the behavior of the same-sex model to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex.”” The fourth prediction was ““since aggression is a highly masculine-typed behavior in society, boys should be more predisposed than girls toward imitating aggression, the difference being most marked for subjects exposed to the male model.”” The subjects of the experiment consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls ranging from the ages of 3 to 6 years at the Stanford University Nursey School. The average age of the subjects was about 4 years and 4 months. The control group of the experiment was 24 children who were not exposed to any...

...The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Alfred Bandura during 1961 and 1963 studying patterns of behavior associated with depression.
24 children, 12 girls and 12 boys, between the ages of 3 and 6 were chosen from the Stanford University Nursery School. The first part of the experiment involved bringing a child and an adult model into a playroom. In the playroom, the child was seated in one corner filled with highly appealing activities such as stickers and stamps. The adult model was seated in another corner containing a toy set, a mallet, and an inflatable Bobo doll. Before leaving the room, the experimenter explained to the child that the toys in the adult corner were only for the adult to play with.
During the aggressive model scenario, the adult would begin by playing with the toys for approximately one minute. After this time the adult began to show aggression towards the Bobo doll. Some examples of this include hitting the Bobo doll and using the toy mallet to hit the Bobo doll in the face. After about 10 minutes, the experimenter came back into the room, released the adult model, and took the child into another playroom. The non-aggressive adult model simply played with the small toys for the entire 10 minute period. In this situation, the Bobo doll was completely ignored by the model then the child was taken out of the room.
The next stage placed...

...The Bobo Doll Experiment and Learning Through Modeling.
The Dr. Albert Bandura’s hypothesis was that children’s aggressive behavior is learned through observing and imitating others. Like many other behaviorists, Dr. Bandura believed that aggression is learned through behavioral modeling process, rather than inherited through genetic factors. He positioned that modeling processes toward nurture extreme on a nature-nurture continuum. The exposure to an aggressive behavior through TV, PC games and environment increases tendency towards violence in children. Dr. Bandura followed a scientific method to design an experiment to prove his hypothesis that children would copy adult’s behavior.
Dr. Bandura conducted a typical experiment with simulated targets to test his hypothesis. The experiment was designed to establish or to prove the causality. The dependent and independent variables are easy to identify in the Bobo doll experiment. During the experiment two groups of children were studied. There was the experimental group, which got a particular treatment and the control group, which did not. The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether an independent variable affects the dependent variable.
The dependent variable (DV) in the experiment was a learning through modeling and copying of the behavior by observing a role model...